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LSU women hit the road for No. 22 Missouri

BATON ROUGE — The Lady Tigers are playing their fifth and final road game for the month of January on Thursday when they face No. 22 Missouri at 7 p.m. in Columbia.

The Lady Tigers look to continue the defensive success they have sustained in all seven conference contests. The Lady Tigers have held each of their SEC opponents below their scoring average, some by as much as 20-plus points below average. In all but two games, LSU has forced its opponent to turn the ball over more times than their average and has held the team’s leading scorer below their own scoring average.

Through seven league contests, LSU is leading the conference in scoring defense (53.9 ppg allowed), is second in rebounding defense (32.3 rpg allowed) and is third in steals (73).

“We definitely want to go back to what our identity should be, and it should be defending the basketball and rebounding,” said head coach Nikki Fargas. “Even in the past, when you look at some of the LSU teams, they’ve held their opponents in the low 50s and below, and we want to get back to that. Offensively we have struggled, but we’ve had great looks.

“We were able to put ourselves in position to win a few games and we fell short of accomplishing that goal, but we were able to go back and see why,” added Fargas. “We have to make layups and get those points in the paint and free throws. That’s something that we’ve been really focusing on.”

Missouri comes in to the game averaging 74.1 points per contest, and their leading scorer, Sophie Cunningham sports a 13.9 points per game mark. Jordan Frericks leads Mizzou in rebounding with an average of 8.0 board per game. She also leads the team in blocks with 20 and in steals with 31. Missouri is also averaging just over seven three-pointers a game, having connected on 145 of their 444 attempts (33 percent). Sierra Michaelis has hit 36 treys this season, followed by Cunningham’s 26 three-pointers.

“Missouri is a team that has a balanced attack,” said Fargas. “They’ve always been known for their ability to stretch your defense and shoot the three, but they’ve added an inside presence to their offensive execution. They’re pressing more, so taking care of the basketball full court is going to also be key. Defensively, we’re going to have to stretch our defense. We’re going to have to be there to guard the three ball.”

In the last two games, LSU has worked with a vastly depleted roster because of injuries and illness and used just six players against Arkansas and seven versus Georgia. Jenna Deemer, LSU’s leading outside shooter and the second-leading scorer, has missed the last four games with an illness and senior forward Ann Jones, who is a 48-percent shooter, missed the Arkansas and Georgia games with an injury.

Junior Alexis Hyder leads the Lady Tigers in both scoring and rebounding with 10.3 points and 7.7 rebounds a game. Hyder has scored in double figures in the last six consecutive games, and recorded double-doubles versus Arkansas and Florida. She has led the Lady Tigers in rebounding 11 times this season; and in scoring seven times.

Senior Akilah Bethel has posted 17 steals in the last six games, including a career-high five in the loss to Arkansas. Bethel leads the Lady Tigers in steals with 41 for an average of 2.2 steals per game. She averages 8.5 points and 6.0 rebounds a game. She also leads the team in assists with 42.

Rina Hill, who is the only Lady Tiger to start all 20 games, is second on the team in assists with 41. She is averaging more than 37 minutes of action per game in the last eight contests. She has played the full 40 minutes in three of the last four games. She led LSU’s offensive effort in the win over Georgia with 14 points.

Jasmine Rhodes, who led the squad in rebounds against Georgia with nine, is leading the rebounding effort for the guards this season with 3.6 boards per meeting. She also totals 23 steals and 22 assists.